I must begin this post by being honest and admitting I haven’t been able to produce a single figure for the “A Tale of X Gamers” Project.
There were countless factors which conspired so that I wouldn’t have the time or the will to work on the miniatures of my Word Bearers army and since that’s something most of us will face sometime over the course of our hobby lives I thought it would be ok to talk a little bit about it here on the blog.
Every now and then I talk about “real life” here on the blog, which is the everyday stuff from our lives when we’re not devoting ourselves to what truly matters: Our hobby. Well, real life does have the intrusive habit of getting into one’s way when it comes to quality hobby time and it’s only natural that from time to time, we see ourselves without enough free time to devote to our hobbies, specially wargaming which demands a lot of time in order to assemble and paint our miniatures before we even get to play some games.
No, we haven’t given up on the “A Tale of X Gamers” project. Far from that, but, unfortunately real life does have a meddlesome habit of getting on the way of our hobby related projects from time to time doesn’t it? Someone far wiser than me has said that “Life is what happens while we’re busy making plans” and that has proven accurate once more.
I have once more been betrayed by my computer. This time it was my own fault as I managed to get it infected with some pretty virulent internet virus which began to shut down and erase everything I had on my hard drives. I did get it serviced by a specialized technician but when it came back there were faulty files and a bunch of shenanigans which prompted me to take it back to the store and have it formatted once more. And there it remains to this day.
As you’ve probably noticed we had quite a few posts over the month of October from the “A Tale of X Gamers” project. As I explained on my introductory post about it, this was an old idea that I’m happy to see becoming reality thanks to the willingness of the participants to whom I’m deeply thankful.
One of the nice things of this project is that I also became a reader of the blog, with the privilege of being able to read the texts before anyone else, but a reader nonetheless. So yesterday as I finished editing one of the last texts which will be published this month I caught myself wanting to see what’s coming next from the participants, like how they’ll develop their army lists, whether or not they’ll include my favorite units from their Codexes and so on and so forth. I can say I’m definitely hooked by now and that I can’t wait to see what lies ahead.
Another nice thing about the project is that, with the exception of article deadlines, budget and number of points we’ll need to collect for our armies, nothing else was arranged between the participants and still the pool of participants and armies couldn’t be more eclectic, illustrating how varied our approached to the hobby can be and that even when utilizing the same Codex to build an army the end results can be very different (like the armies being built by Caio and Montagna with the Grey Knights Codex for instance).
Hello, my name is Caco, actually that’s not my name but I prefer being called that instead of Carlyle.
I’m 40 years old and have been into the miniature and model making hobby for at least 20 years, however it was only 5 years ago that the hobby managed to grow to a certain size in Brazil allowing us to better enjoy all aspects of the game. That coupled with an economy that allowed international purchases through the internet and the hobbyists in an age range of 25 to 50 years, already financially settled, allowed us to follow the international new releases with little to no delay.
Based on that and with the arrival of Warhammer 40K’s 6th edition I decided to accept the invitation of my friend Estevao (the owner of the blog) to assemble a completely new army from scratch in the light of the new rules brought by the 6th edition. A mission given is a mission fulfilled so I accepted his invitation and will write here each month about the progress I’ll make in acquiring new models, assembling, converting and painting them.
One of the things a lot of us wargamers, and miniature enthusiasts, get to face a lot are the misconceptions and prejudice of others towards our hobby. How many of you have carefully explained the hobby to relatives, friends and acquaintances, just in order to hear a disappointing “So you play with toys right?”. I know I have heard something along those lines and apparently other hobbyists out there as well.
So I tend to find really nice when the mainstream media takes interest in any of my hobbies and decides to showcase any of them to their audience. A while ago a very good friend of mine, Silvio from the Roleplay blog, had told me that he had been contacted by a TV show to talk a little about our common hobby: Wargaming.
My first thought was: “Wow! Wargaming on TV! That’s new!”
I was mildly surprised when I found out he was actually going to be interviewed about the wargaming hobby and not only showcased as a freak hobbyist, as I’ve seen too many times already when it comes to Role Playing Games and Videogames.
It turned out that on the actual show, which aired on a cable TV channel in Brazil, they had an informal chat which presented wargaming on a broad spectrum giving the public at large an average idea of our hobby. It was a pretty good show and I believe it achieved its purpose of showcasing the hobby in a positive light.
That’s why I decided to translate add subtitles to the original video in order to share it with you here. Not only you get to watch a nice show about our common hobby but also see some nice painted miniatures and scenery. You might even be able to spot one of the models I painted and shared here on the blog sometime ago.
Salve Leitor.
Dia desses o Silvio, do blog Roleplay, anunciou que nosso hobby seria tema de um programa de TV. Ele já havia comentado comigo ter sido procurado para fazer um programa para televisão sobre o hobby que compartilhamos, e é tema deste blog: Os Wargames.
Fiquei entusiasmado por ele e com a potencial exposição do hobby, que sempre acaba angariando alguns novos adeptos o que é interessante para fomentar o crescimento da comunidade como um todo. Mas ao mesmo tempo veio o receio. Receio de que uma vez mais um de meus hobbies fosse retratado de maneira negativa na mídia, coisa que já aconteceu com o RPG, com jogos de vídeo game e com as revistas em quadrinho. A imprensa tem, de modo geral, o mal hábito de retratar esses hobbies em uma luz negativa, ou ainda, como interesses de pessoas esquisitas. Nada podia estar mais longe da verdade.
Felizmente não foi o caso dessa vez. O Silvio foi entrevistado por ninguém menos que Gastão Moreira, ou só Gastão como ele é mais conhecido do público, para o programa “Lado H” que faz parte da grade de alguns canais de TV a cabo no Brasil. Ao longo de um segmento os dois bateram um papo informal sobre os jogos de estratégia, mais conhecidos como wargames, explanando de uma maneira descomplicada sobre suas origens e particularidades.
Uma excelente matéria que fez jus à proposta de apresentar o jogo no espaço de um segmento. Parabéns ao Silvio pelo brilhantismo da entrevista e pela forma como representou a comunidade extensivos também ao programa “Lado H” e sua produção.
O vídeo já havia sido postado na internet, mas optei por traduzir e legendá-lo para atingir uma audiência maior aqui no blog. Vale gastar uns minutinhos do seu tempo para assistir (ou rever se você já o tinha visto) e quem sabe indicá-lo para os amigos no intuito de explicar um pouco mais sobre esse seu “hobby esquisito”. Prestando atenção você encontra até uma miniatura pintada por mim e que já apareceu aqui no blog.
The Painting Frog 